Yesterday Reale Mutua, one of the big five non-life insurers in Italy, announced it had issued a blockchain surety bond as part of the “Fideiussioni Digitali”, a national project backed by the Banca d’Italia.
Three months ago, we wrote that 30 banks and organizations were collaborating on the project with CeTIF (Research Centre on Technology), payments network SIA and its SIAChain, tech company Reply and insurance regulator IVASS.
Guarantees or surety bonds are frequently required by government departments or for construction contracts to pay out if the supplier fails to perform. There has been rampant fraud in the Italian surety sector. Hence the blockchain solution aims to make sure a bank or insurer genuinely backs the bonds.
This first surety bond issued by Reale Mutua provides a guarantee to the Municipality of Milan for the completion of certain reclamation works being carried out by Milano Progetti.
“Reale Group keeps on investing in innovation, with the firm belief that understanding and monitoring the main trends in the evolution of the company, of the market and of the insurance sector is one of the key success factors for the future,” said Gianluca Lorenzi, Head of Reale Lab 1828. “Blockchain technology will bring important advantages along the whole value chain.”
The project leverages R3’s Corda enterprise blockchain.
Other blockchain surety bond projects include one with Accenture and insurer Zurich, and another for real estate development in Australia involving property company Scentre Group, IBM, ANZ, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac.
The organizations participating in Fideiussioni Digitali are: Acquedotto Pugliese, ANCE Lombardia, ANCI Digitale, ANCI Lombardia, AON, ASMEL, Assolombarda, Banca Mediolanum, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Banca Popolare di Puglia e Basilicata, Banca Popolare di Sondrio, Banco BPM, Cattolica Assicurazioni, CEDACRI, Bari Municipality, Milan Municipality, Confindustria Digitale, CONSIP, HERA, ICCREA Banca, InfoCamere, Innolva, Intesa Sanpaolo, Poste Italiane, Reale Group, ARIA – Regione Lombardia, Sicily Region, Roma Capitale (Rome Municipality), Terna, and VIVIgas energia.